


Total Drama Gay Panic

by hanji101



Series: NoCo Fics [1]
Category: Total Drama (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Bullying, But He'll Get Better, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Forced Bonding, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Multi, Nemma is a lie and Noah is gay, Slow Burn, and I mean real slow, because courtney and gwen will beat him until he does, duncan is a bit of a dick, like they should, minor one-sided Noah/Owen, on Owen's side
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:14:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29791071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanji101/pseuds/hanji101
Summary: Noah, a teenage boy struggling with his sexuality, gets stuck in Homecoming Planning Committee with a whole bunch of kids who all have different reasons for being there, none of which is to actually help plan the dance. When Noah is the only person the committee head trusts among the colorful members, he finds himself in close proximity with her, they're forced to work together and eventually become friends.ORNoah and Courtney are forced to become friends and end up knowing way too much about each other's love lives.aka, Noah and Courtney are my favorites, so here's the two of them trying to make my OTPs happen by constantly pushing each other at their respective crushes.
Relationships: Cody Anderson/Noah, Courtney/Duncan (Total Drama), Courtney/Gwen (Total Drama), Duncan/Gwen (Total Drama), Heather/Original Female Character(s), Izzy/Owen (Total Drama), Noah/Owen (Total Drama)
Series: NoCo Fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2199441
Comments: 32
Kudos: 35





	1. More Than Survive

**Author's Note:**

> in this fic, characters' ethnicities are as follows  
> Courtney is half-hispanic and half pakistani. Noah is indian, and Heather is korean. Everyone else is obvious.
> 
> yes, heather will get a girlfriend, upon my sister's insistence.
> 
> this chapter is named after "More Than Survive" from Be More Chill.

Noah Patel just  _ loved  _ school. Sure, he didn’t have many friends. But he didn’t exactly  _ need  _ friends, either. He had good grades, was on honor roll, and was on Sophomore Council. His life was going just fine. 

“Hey, how’s it going, Captain Homo?” A boy shouted from across the quad. The green-haired boy guffawed, drawing a laugh from some freshmen sitting on a bench across from him. Duncan Hine. What a dick.

“Says the guy named after a brand of cake mix.” Noah rolled his eyes. “And I’m not gay, anyway.” He said, crossing his arms. The punk turned his attention to some other unlucky student and Noah took this as his opportunity to make an escape. 

Okay, so maybe he  _ didn’t  _ love school. Maybe people were a little mean and maybe he wished kids wouldn’t randomly decide to call him gay because he spoke sarcastically and wore sweater vests. Because he wasn’t gay. Probably. 

In all truthfulness, he wasn’t sure. He’d never exactly had a crush on a girl, but that could be chalked up to the fact that he found almost everyone he ever met to be annoying and loud. He was content to just read books in the corner and fake being sick during PE so he could, well… read more books in the corner.

And so, even if Noah was, theoretically- which he wasn’t- gay, coming out as such (which he wasn’t!) would just make his social life even more sad and pathetic than it already was. I mean, there was only one other person at school out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. 

“Noah! Hey, buddy!” 

Speak of the devil. Owen Schweller, a large but friendly boy, bounded up towards Noah, wearing his trademark grin. Noah sighed. If he were to come out now- purely theoretically- he had to stress- he’d just be associated more with Owen. And while Owen was nice and could be a good friend, his social life couldn’t hold any more weight. No pun intended.

Noah continued through the quad and down the hall of the 700 wing, Owen following him as he went.

“So, Noah, I’ve been thinking-” Owen began, “You’re always reading books, right?” 

“I don’t know, am I?” Noah deadpanned, as he was holding a book right as they spoke. Owen laughed. The guy seemed to find anything Noah said funny.

“Anyway, so I was reading this book, because I figured they must be really fun if you’re always reading them. It was called  _ The Very Hungry Caterpillar, _ and it was about a hungry caterpillar. Then  _ I _ got hungry, so I ate a caterpillar.” Owen rambled on, rubbing his stomach. Noah facepalmed.

“I’m sure that must have tasted great.” he said as he arrived at his locker. He unlocked it and began taking out the books for his next class, science. Owen gave Noah one last little laugh before he walked the other way down to the 400 wing for his next class.

The very few times Noah wasn’t sitting in the library, reading a book and pretending his classmates didn’t exist, he was at home, lying on his bed and scrolling the school blog. It was an amusing way to pass the time- the students foolishly spilled so much more about themselves online than they did in real life. Noah knew better than to do this, though, so he usually just lurked the forum. 

The first thing on the landing page of the site was a large pop-up banner with big, yellow block letters reading “Homecoming Dance Soon! Get Tickets Now!”. Under the post were a few comments, all of which being from the busty, airheaded blonde, Lindsay Gray. Noah chuckled. Seems she forgot this wasn’t her personal blog, and so she was saying something totally unrelated about Tyler Heroldson, a guy she clearly had the hots for.

Noah smirked. Tyler Heroldson, of all people. Lindsay really didn’t have the best taste, did she? Tyler’s hair was always messed up and tied back with an ugly sweatband, he wore a tracksuit everywhere, always smelled sweaty, and worst of all had a face like a goat. Not someone Noah would date in a million years. But of course he wouldn’t. He wasn’t gay.

Scrolling down a little, he saw another post, made by the Sophomore Class Leader and resident A-type girl with a stick up her ass, Courtney Lopez-Kumari. It appeared to be some sort of advertisement- or now that Noah thought about it, more like a desperate cry for help- to ask people to join the dance committee. Apparently not many people had signed up this year, so they were severely understaffed. 

Noah wouldn’t join that committee if it were the only thing between his junk and a high-power meat grinder. He’d rather have his nuts ground into meat than be on some stupid committee for stupid kids who had long passed the peak of their miserable lives. 

Except it turned out he had to. Noah had been minding his own business, quietly eating his dinner of- gulp- ground beef chili with a side of corn.

“So, Noah.” His father began, to which Noah immediately tried to clap his hands over his ears. “Take your hands off your ears.” He said seriously, to which Noah begrudgingly obliged.

“Noah, I’ve noticed you spend most of your time at home.” He said. “So I’ve decided to sign you up for an extracurricular.” 

“Oh boy.” Noah said and folded his arms. “What is it, the GSA?” 

“No. Wait, what’s a GSA?” Noah’s father asked. Well, at least his own dad didn’t seem to assume the thing everyone else did about him. “No, I signed you up for the homecoming committee. Your grades are good enough for it and you need some community stuff on your college application.”

“Dad, that’s years away. And I’m a TA this year.” Noah protested. His ground beef was starting to look less appetizing after he remembered his promise to himself earlier. 

“The homecoming committee is understaffed right now, Noah, and I trust you will be a model student and rise to the challenge.” Noah sighed. When his dad set his mind to something like this, there really was no stopping him. That’s how Noah ended up half of the places he did. If it were up to him, he’d be home all day with a book. 

“Sure. Right, dad.” Noah replied. Oh boy, this was going to be a long few weeks.

  
  



	2. Blood In The Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> courtney is annoyed by an idiot with dumb hair
> 
> today's chapter song title is Blood In The Water from Legally Blonde (the musical)

Courtney Corbyn Lopez-Kumari, on the other hand, genuinely  _ did  _ love school. I mean, why wouldn’t she, when she was born into wealth, guaranteeing her an easy childhood, a good academic and musical education, and a billion dollar law firm? Since Courtney was two, she knew she wanted to be just like her father. Mr. Lopez was one of the most respected lawyers in the country, and Courtney herself already had a bit to her own name as a two-year debate team national champion. 

So what wasn’t to love about school? All the classes were too easy, even the advanced ones she was placed into, without so much as a glance at anything more than her name and perfect 4.0 GPA. She was secretary of the Sophomore Council, head of the Homecoming Committee, first chair violin in the school orchestra, and all the teachers and students respected her! Well, the ones that weren’t idiots, at least.

“Hey Courtney, you’re walking funny again, got a stick up your ass?” Yelled a punk, sitting on a bench in the quad. One of the said idiots. A green-haired, neanderthal-like delinquent named Duncan Hine, who, as she had seen the quippy boy known as Noah say in an interaction surprisingly similar to this, shared a name with a cake mix.

But she wasn’t going to let the cake mix insult be used twice in a row.

“I’m not the one here who’s into  _ anal _ , Hine.” She retorted, crossing her arms. It was a crude and disgusting insult, but she supposed he deserved it. 

“Since when do  _ you  _ happen to know so much about my sex life, madam secretary?” He asked, to which Courtney rolled her eyes. Duncan laughed.

“It’s easy to know about something that doesn’t exist.” She replied. She could hear someone laugh across the quad- probably that Owen kid. With a huff, Courtney turned away from the delinquent and walked away. He wasn’t worth her time.

What  _ was  _ worth her time, however, was planning for the homecoming dance. Or at least she thought it would be, if it didn’t include the same thing as the problem she had just run away from.

She looked at the committee sign-up sheet in despair. Along with the sea of penis graffiti teenage boys love to draw on sign up sheets, were a few names, first of which was the delinquent from earlier. Of course she’d have to deal with Duncan, of all people, sabotaging her every effort to plan a perfect dance for the students.

Her eyes scanned the rest of the list, which were all names almost as bad. Heather Chae. Resident popular bitch and queen bee. She’d be difficult. Lindsay Gray, heather’s right hand woman, dumb as a sack of flour. She couldn’t wait to see what great ideas  _ she  _ brought to the table. Gwen Dabrowsky. Of course. Some sort of relatively quiet artsy goth who was usually sketching in the quad. She could at least be a good asset for making posters. Cody Anderson. A little weird, but not too bad, when he wasn’t acting like he was some sort of alpha male he clearly wasn’t. Owen Schweller. He was nice, but had the tendency to stink up the room. Isabelle… Isabelle Smythe. Why were any of these people even signing up for the committee? How was she going to deal with all these personalities in one place?

But, at least it appeared god had had mercy on her soul, for at the end of the list of these conflicting personalities (Lindsay, Cody, Heather, Gwen, and Duncan) and straight up crazy people (Izzy and Owen) was a name belonging to a sane person. Noah Patel!

Courtney hadn’t talked with the short, scrawny boy much, and he hadn’t talked to her aside from quick, snappy comebacks that she’d never admit she found funny, but he was in most of her advanced classes and Sophomore Council, so he was clearly competent and had his life under control, unlike all the other idiots who signed up.

She would appoint him as the second head of the homecoming council, and he could help her with the planning that it was apparent that none of the people who signed up had enough brain cells to do. Though it did strike her as strange, Noah participating in an extracurricular activity. Maybe he was finally breaking out of his shell, she supposed.

She had to find this Noah Patel immediately, as he was the only person she could trust.

“DUNCAN HINE, YOU DO NOT GET TO WALK OUT OF CLASS LIKE THIS!” A shout boomed from the english classroom, followed by a laughing- no,  _ chortling _ green-haired, capital I, Idiot zooming down the hallway. Infuriating. She curled her fists into balls.

Well, she had to deal with this first. God dammit, Duncan.


	3. If You Were Gay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> alright, so I've decided I'm going to be naming chapters after songs from musicals from now on. This one is from Avenue Q. 
> 
> I may or may not have projected the totally uncanon musical thing onto Cody, haha.
> 
> Fans of Battle Royale and Glee have some references in this chapter! Side note: I chose the last name Smythe for Izzy as a joke as a glee fan, but I ended up sticking with it.

Noah was sitting in the quad during lunch, reading his book while listening to music in the background. The quad wasn’t normally where he’d eat- usually, Isabelle Smythe (or Izzy, as she preferred to be called) and Owen would drag him to the lunchroom and force him to put down his book to make ‘polite conversation’. Air quotes, because with Noah it was never even polite and barely counted as conversation. So he’d made his way to the quad to hide from them.

But of course it looked like his fragile peace was about to be interrupted, as Courtney Lopez-Kumari, head of the homecoming committee, first chair violin in the orchestra, and resident type-A know it all made her way towards Noah at a brisk pace.

Noah buried his face in his book, hoping she wouldn’t notice him. He just wanted to read in peace, dammit. Sadly, he had no such luck.

“Noah Patel?” A high voice, demanding and almost painful to listen to, said. Noah groaned and took his face out of his book to stare right into the eyes of the homecoming committee head. 

“What.” he said monotonously, not even really asking a question, bookmarking his book and slipping it into his backpack. 

“I see you’ve signed up for the homecoming committee.” She smiled, pressing her hands together.

“I was aware you had eyes, yes.” 

Courtney’s brow furrowed in response to this and she folded her arms. He was clearly trying her patience… just as she was trying his. “Cut the crap, Noah.”

“Then get to the point.” he replied, not bothering to meet Courtney’s eyes.

“Well, I’m in need of a vice head for the homecoming committee. And I don’t think I can trust any of the other idiots who signed up.” 

“Okay, and?”

“Noah, I’m offering the position as vice head for the homecoming planning committee. I’ll even pay you. You can get free tickets for you and whichever guy you decide to bring.” Courtney offered genuinely, but Noah just sighed.

“Why does everyone think I’m some sort of raging homosexual?” He asked, albeit in what could only be described as a tone that made him sound like a raging homsexual. Way to be convincing, Noah.

“Okay, fine, sorry.” Courtney said. “But I need your help. I can’t wrangle all these idiots by myself.” 

“The list can’t be that bad.” Noah said, knowing it very well could be. He didn’t want to do this at all, let alone help  _ lead  _ it.

“Trust me. It  _ is. _ ” Courtney replied. “We have Hine, Schweller, Dabrowski, Chae, Gray, and  _ Isabelle Smythe  _ of all people!”

“She doesn’t like being called that.” Noah commented, though he really couldn’t care less about the nutty ginger’s personal preferences. 

“Whatever! My point is, we need you. And if you won’t help me with this I’m kicking you off the committee.” she planted a hand on her hip.

Noah groaned again and finally gave in.

“Fine. Sure, Courtney. I’ll be there.” 

And Noah was true to his word. At precisely three-thirty, as school let out, he made his way to the Spanish classroom, which was being used for Homecoming Committee meetings. He was the first one there, it seemed, other than Courtney, who was standing by the whiteboard writing names on it.

“Noah. Good to know  _ someone  _ knows the importance of being punctual.” She said, waving him over. “Take a seat.”

“Yeah. Sure. My classroom was just next door.” It’s not like he made a point of getting here right as the bell rang. 

As Courtney continued writing, more people trickled in. First was Duncan- damn neanderthal- and then Gwen, who was busy sketching in a large sketchbook, just like he had seen her doing earlier. Noah glared daggers at Duncan when he walked in, which the other boy quickly reciprocated. Noah didn’t flinch, however, and just took out a book. Courtney pursed her lips.

“Alright. Sit down, Gwen.  _ Duncan. _ ” She waved to him and gave him an unconvincing tight smile. She looked like she was waiting for the next opportunity to stomp his balls into a paste and chop his dick off. Which Noah wouldn’t exactly be adverse to seeing.

The punk sat down in the plastic chair and immediately crossed his arms like he would rather be anywhere but here.

“What brings you to this jolly crew, Earring Boy McGee?” Noah asked, not bothering to speak with any inflection at all. Not his best insult, but he had learned from years of practice that dunking on Duncan’s masculinity was the best way to get to him. “Nice bling.” 

Duncan just glared at him, to which Noah smirked.

“Try to be civil while we wait for the others.” Courtney said, although she probably didn’t intend to follow her own rule on this. 

“Whatever you say, President.” Duncan said, earning an eye roll from the stern girl.

The next to arrive were the self-proclaimed ‘popular people’- Lindsay Gray and Heather Chae. They were chatting as they walked, and continued doing so until Courtney coughed once they sat down.

“Oh.  _ Hi,  _ Courtney.” Heather said, giving her a little wave. Lindsay repeated the motion.

“Hi Courtney! And Nora, and Donald, and Greta.” She smiled before immediately losing her focus in favor of picking at a bit of lint on her skirt.

“Do I  _ look  _ like a girl to you?” Noah said flatly. 

“Yeah. You sure do.” The obnoxious green-haired punk said from across the room, causing Heather and Lindsay to laugh. 

“You’re one to talk with all that  _ jewelry. _ ” Noah replied.

“It’s called a  _ body modification. _ ” Duncan shot back, and folded his arms.

Courtney shushed the both of them and Noah begrudgingly rolled his eyes and shut his mouth. The next people to walk in were Izzy and Owen, Izzy riding on the larger boy’s shoulders.

“Noah! I didn’t expect  _ you  _ to be here!” The redhead let out a giggle and jumped off her ride. “Here to help plan a killer party?”

“Well, that’s the purpose of the committee, so yes.” Noah said, to which Izzy nodded mock-sagely.

“Yes, correct, you are!” She said. Why the hell was she talking like Yoda? Izzy and Owen took their seats next to Noah, leaving only one name on the whiteboard to yet have arrived in the classroom. Cody Anderson.

After a few minutes of awkward waiting, a short, twiggy-looking boy arrived in the classroom. He was tiny- about Noah-sized, Noah noted, and had light brown hair styled in a clear attempt to mimic that of a k-pop star. He dressed, however, the complete opposite, something in between preppy, trying to be cool, and just gay as fuck. He waved when he entered.

“Alright, so everyone’s here!” Courtney said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s get started.” She wrote down a few more words on the whiteboard, listing off  _ ‘decorations’, ‘food’, ‘music’,  _ and  _ ‘fundraising’.  _

“I’ll be handling fundraising by myself.” Courtney said. “Anyone else have any requests?”

Owen leapt out of his seat and waved his arm in the air. “Ooh, ooh, Izzy and I are gonna do food!!” 

Courtney nodded and wrote their names down next to the category. “Anyone else have any requests?”

Gwen, who had been mostly quiet this whole time, raised her hand. “Can I do decorations?” she asked. “I think I could draw posters, too.”

“Perfect! We need music, and then the rest of you can go where you want to.”

“Can I do music?” Cody- the brown-haired wannabe, piped up. “I can make a killer playlist!” He smiled, which made Noah smirk a bit. 

Courtney hurried to write Cody in under music. “Alright, Noah, Heather, Lindsay, and Duncan. What do you want to do? Noah, you get first pick since you’re vice-head.” 

Ugh. Noah hated picking things. “Uhh. I- I dunno. Can’t I just do fundraising with you or something?” he said.

“No. I have a bet with my dad that I can raise five hundred dollars for this all by myself.” she replied. Noah rolled his eyes. Like that was even possible.

“I’ll do. Uhhh. Music, I guess?” He looked at the small boy, who shot him another gap-toothed smile. 

“Lindsay and I will be on decorations.” Heather said. “No problems with that,  _ right? _ ” She shot Gwen a side eye. Those two could never stand each other. 

“But I wanted to do music…” Lindsay began, to which Heather clapped a hand over her mouth. 

“Good. No problems.” she smiled and Courtney wrote their names down under  _ decorations.  _

They had broken out into groups, with Noah’s own being just him and Cody. Duncan had chosen to go with decorations, so that was the largest group, which Noah couldn’t say he would have rather been in. 

Cody and Noah sat awkwardly together at a table, Noah’s face in a book while Cody stared at it. 

“What’s that book about?” Cody asked curiously. 

Noah put  _ Battle Royale  _ down on the table and looked up at Cody, finally making eye contact.

“It’s about teenagers killing each other.” He said. That was true, it was. Cody’s eyes widened.

“What, like the Hunger Games?” He inquired, reaching over to stare at the cover of the book.

“Sort of. Only more intense and depressing.” Noah shrugged. I mean, that’s what most people would describe it as. It wasn’t exactly bedtime reading but Noah hadn’t been exactly on the edge of his seat either.

“...so you like reading?” Cody finally said after they sat in silence for a while. 

“No shit, sherlock.” 

More awkward silence.

“I like TV. And video games. And musicals.” Cody said. Noah raised an eyebrow.

“That’s pretty gay, Blaine Anderson.” Noah was now staring at his cuticles. Cody nervously scratched the back of his head.

“Well, you just made a glee reference, so…” Cody said. Oh shit, Noah probably shouldn’t have done that. Oh well.

“Yeah, well you knew that reference.” Noah shrugged. “I’m not gay anyway. I just watched it because I like watching trashy shows.” 

Cody looked a little bit disappointed. Did this guy actually  _ enjoy  _ glee as anything more than a stupid popcorn show?

“Yeah well I’m not gay either.” Cody said. 

“And you feel the need to say that why?” Noah supposed that was hypocritical of him to say. Whatever.

Cody didn’t reply, only looked down at himself twiddling his thumbs with a red face. Oh, so he  _ was  _ gay. 

Cody glanced across the room to Gwen, eyeing her up and down as she sulked in between Heather and Lindsay.

Okay. Maybe bi. Definitely not straight. I mean, who wears sweater vests and  _ is straight _ ? Well, other than Noah. He wore a sweater vest. But he was very straight. The word  _ twink  _ came to mind when describing Cody. Noah chuckled at that. 

“Something funny?” Cody asked.

“Nope. I was laughing at a horrible death scene in my book.” Noah said. Not really true. I mean, not that that hadn’t happened before. What kind of idiot hugs a girl known to be a troublemaker in a death game? That sickle was obviously going to find a way into her neck.

“Oh. Really?” Cody’s eyes widened more than they already were. 

“Sure.” Noah turned the page in his book. 

Eventually, after about half an hour more of awkward exchanges, only two of which were actually about the music for the dance (Which were Noah explaining why they shouldn’t play the Book Of Mormon soundtrack and Noah explaining why Glee covers were lame). Once Courtney finally let them all go, Noah packed up his backpack to leave, but Cody stopped him.

“Hey, Noah, wait!” He said.

“What?”

“Are you getting picked up?” Cody asked.

“No, I’m driving back.” He replied, pulling his car keys out of his backpack.

“Oh. Okay.” Cody turned to leave.

“Why, you need a ride?” Noah asked. Dammit, why was he even offering?

“Well, I was going to walk home, but I’m really sore from running the mile today…” Cody said, wincing a little as he remembered his horrible mile time. His parents would kill him.

“Alright, well I guess if it’s not too out of the way I can drop you off.” Noah sighed and Cody nodded excitedly.

“Thanks, you’re the best!” He smiled. Noah returned the smile for the third time today.

“Alright loser, let’s go.”


	4. If I Could Tell Her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney does some spying and finds some information she's not really sure what to do with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this one wasn't as quick as the others! 
> 
> today's title is named after If I Could Tell Her from Dear Evan Hansen. It doesn't really have the correct vibe or any of that but I couldn't find another song with a title that worked hahaha. Thought of doing Never Ever Getting Rid Of Me from Waitress but I'm saving that for another chapter.

Could that mohawk’d, unibrow-having absolute peon be  _ any more  _ annoying? Courtney didn’t think so, but she supposed it was technically possible _.  _ Due to Courtney’s advanced placement in every class and many extracurriculars, she didn’t have to let Duncan occupy much of her time or mental space, but thanks to his signing up for the homecoming committee- to which she still had no idea as to the motivations of, he’d been living rent-free in her mind. 

Maybe she shouldn’t be thinking about him as much as she should be, but she couldn’t help it considering how much he was antagonizing her at every turn. 

Courtney walked over to the corner of the room where Gwen, Duncan, and Lindsay were working on decorations. Heather was assigned to this too, but she wasn’t here for god knows what reason.

“Where’s Heather?” Courtney asked Lindsay.

“I don’t know. I think she’s with Krista.” Lindsay shrugged. Courtney sighed.

“Krista. Who’s that?” Courtney wondered. Name sounded somewhat familiar.

“Some lesbo-ass junior,” The punk guy said. Gwen gave him a light slap on the arm. 

“Hey, I’m into girls too,” the goth girl said and rolled her eyes. “And I’m sure Krista wouldn’t appreciate the word ‘lesbo-ass’.” (omg gwen standing up for me how sweet

“Oh, right, you’re potsexual or whatever,” Duncan said. “Pensexual. Potsexual. Pantsexual. Something like that?” 

“Pansexual,” Gwen replied. “And you don’t know, Krista could be heterosexual.”

“More like  _ heatherosexual _ ,” Duncan replied before chortling like he was extremely funny, earning an eye roll from Courtney.

“Can you stop speculating on your classmate’s sexualities and show me your plans for the decorations?” Courtney asked, putting a hand on her hip.

“We’re going to do a playboy bunny theme.” Duncan grinned.

“No, no, we’re not.” Gwen said, snatching her sketchbook from duncan, who had drawn stupid graffiti all over it.

“Can’t you be serious for  _ once in your life _ , Duncan?” Courtney reprimanded.

“Nope.” God dammit. Another obnoxious, toothy grin. Obnoxiously sexy. No- she did not just think that. Obnoxiously idiotic. There.

“Listen, you’re off the committee if you don’t take this seriously. I get you don’t take anything seriously, like grades, relationships, or- urk- personal hygiene, but I need you to actually be a productive member of this team.” Courtney tried to remove her usual annoyance and straight-up malice from her tone but to little avail, with it just coming out sort of quiet.

“What’s that?” The neanderthal with the earrings questioned. 

Ugh. Get your ears cleaned, dimwit. Courtney leaned towards him so her face was right next to his, eyes shooting daggers at his face.

“Get. To. Work. And. Take. This. Seriously!” She yelled straight in his ear, causing him to flinch and fall back.

“Okay, okay, jeez.” He said. “No need to be such a bitch about it.”

“Like you’re one to talk, Mister ‘I Call Every Guy I’ve Seen Wearing A Scarf Gay’,” Noah said from across the room, which made the guy sitting next to Noah laugh.

“Did someone say gay?” Izzy piped up, jumping over a chair and planting herself onto Owen’s big shoulders.

“I don’t know, did we?” The sarcastic boy replied.

“My cousin is gay. Did you know that? He lives in America. He goes to some private school where they sing a lot and he kinda looks like Grant Gustin.” Izzy rambled on.

“You sure you aren’t talking about a glee character?” Cody asked. 

“Now that you think about it, yeah, I totally am,” Izzy said and giggled. “I don’t have a cousin in america named Sebastian who is in a glee club and looks like Grant Gustin.”

“Because that’s a fictional character that just happens to have the same last name as you.” Noah pointed out. 

“Heeheehee. Yep, that’s it!” Izzy said, jumping off of Owen’s shoulders and cartwheeling over to Courtney.

“Well, that conversation got sidetracked,” Courtney said. “Just tell me your ideas at the end of the meeting.” She walked away from the group of morons and back to her corner where she was planning the budgeting. 

Courtney had to get to the bottom of this. Why did the delinquent with the earrings (and his friend) sign up for the homecoming committee? It was pretty clear Duncan didn’t actually have any ideas for what to do and wasn’t actually trying. There had to be a reason they were here. To laugh at her! Or worse, sabotage! They would turn the elegant school dance into some gigantic, headbanging emo rave! She had to get to the bottom of this.

This afternoon, Courtney was being super sneaky. She even had a disguise! Instead of her normal crisp button down shirt and leggings or skirt, she was dressed in a horrid black hoodie (which she bought from a thrift store), black sweatpants, sneakers, and topped the look off with dark sunglasses. Hopefully nobody would know it was her due to her different attire.

She walked towards the bleachers where the bad kids normally hung out, slowly and carefully, keeping an eye out for stupid punks. She spotted said idiot under the bleachers, with a cigarette in one hand, next to a goth girl who was drawing in the dirt with a stick. 

Courtney climbed onto the bleachers so she sat above them and took out her phone to disguise her true intentions of listening in on their conversation, scrolling through her social media feed, but not really paying attention to it.

“Duncan, you never did explain  _ why  _ you’re joining the Homecoming Committee. I mean I don’t mind, but you’re barely doing anything. It doesn’t seem like your thing,” Gwen said. 

“What can I say, I’ve been bored,” Duncan shrugged

“Are you  _ sure  _ that’s the reason?” Gwen asked, narrowing her eyes at him. “You sure it’s not to get closer to a certain someone?” She elbowed him playfully.

“What? Why would I join a stupid club just to get closer to Cour-” Duncan clapped a hand over his own mouth.

“Well, I never said anything about Courtney, but since you clearly have been thinking of her, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you  _ did. _ ”

“No way. She’s hot and all-” He said.

WAIT,  _ what?  _ The audacity! Courtney could feel her cheeks heating up with rage. Probably rage. I mean, she’d always thought herself to be pretty but such- such crude language to describe her beauty? 

“-but come on, Gwen, she’s a total bitch.” Duncan finished. Oh, so he didn’t even respect her, just thought she had a nice body or something? Courtney tried to keep herself from jumping down from the bleachers right then and pummeling him into a pulp.

“It’s not like you’re not into that.” Gwen joked, pinching him on the arm.

“Am not,” He replied.

“Alright, then you shouldn’t have a problem when she inevitably kicks you out for not doing any work.” Gwen shrugged. Wasn’t her problem. She was actually enjoying decoration duty, though Heather was certainly annoying her.

“Please, like she’d get rid of me. I’m hot and she knows it.” 

Gwen raised an eyebrow. “If you say so. But I’d watch your back if you don’t wanna be booted.” 

“If she  _ does  _ get rid of me, I’m just going to assume it’s because she can’t handle all this.” He pointed to himself. Courtney gagged a little bit. Disgusting.

Well, that was all she needed to know. Despite how much she didn’t want this delinquent in her life, she couldn’t let him win. Losing just wasn’t in her blood. Courtney hopped off the bleachers, which finally grabbed their attention. With one swift motion, she pulled the sunglasses and hood off her face. 

Gwen was laughing and Duncan looked like he’d just been hit by a truck. She stood there for a few seconds with her hand on her hip and just sort of watched realization dawn on his face. Then, without a word, she turned away and walked off the field to the sound of a laughing Gwen and a silent Duncan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments are very much appreciated!!! they make my day


	5. When He Sees Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi, sorry it took a bit to get this one up! The song this chapter is named after is When He Sees Me from Waitress.

Noah never really expected that joining the Homecoming Committee would end up being such a blessing in disguise. He expected it to be literally all boredom and hanging out with people he had no intention of talking to, let alone being friends with, but it turned out to be a good place to retreat to after the long day. 

He and Cody had talked a bit in the car when Noah drove him home, so Noah knew a bit more about him now. He was an only child, unlike Noah, with his many siblings, and his parents both had full-time jobs and weren’t around much. He liked video games, comics, and movies. His favorite Star Wars movie was The Empire Strikes Back. He was more of a marvel person than a DC person. There were a few surprises- along with his love of musical theatre, he also enjoyed singing (in his room, alone, and no he did not demonstrate for Noah) and had been in the drama club at his old school.

Apparently, Cody had left said old school because of a girl named Sierra who was weirdly obsessed with him. It had gotten so constant that Cody had to request his classes changed to avoid her and had to have his dad drive him home. Eventually, he transferred, much to his parent’s relief as they could now spend more time with work. 

So Noah knew quite a bit about Cody. But when Cody had asked him about himself, he dodged the questions, asking more questions about Cody in his usual deadpan voice.

It wasn’t that he had anything to hide, not really, but he really just didn’t like talking about himself. His accomplishments, sure, he’d be glad to boast about if asked, but his personal life? Hell no. Cody didn’t need to know he lived in a crowded house with seven siblings and had to take care of his six year old cousins every Wednesday. He didn’t need to know that Noah hated cheese and always picked it off his pizza. And he certainly didn’t need to know that while he  _ started  _ watching Glee ironically, he stayed for Kurt Hummel. That would just make him think he was gay. Which he probably wasn’t!

“So, Noah, did you see the playlist I sent you?” A short, twinky boy piped up from next to Noah as he walked, jolting him out of his thoughts.

“Yeah, I did. No way Courtney would let you play A Night We’ll Never Forget.” Noah replied.

“But it’s about a school dance!” Cody threw his arms in the air.

“Yes, about a school dance with several references to drugs, sex, and dumping pigs’ blood on a psychic christian girl’s head.” Noah said, grabbing Cody’s arms and dragging them back down so he didn’t look like a fucking idiot.

“I guess.” Cody pouted like a toddler. Noah rolled his eyes. 

It was kinda nice, really, having someone to walk to school with. Aside from the annoying comments Noah would get when they entered the school together, usually along the lines of ‘All aboard the twink mobile!’ or ‘the homos make an entrance’, that is. 

It honestly made no sense, really, considering neither he nor Cody were gay. Or at least not out as such. Whatever, though. Cody didn’t seem to care, and Noah was used to being labelled as a flaming homosexual as soon as he walked into a room. It was probably because either a, he wore sweater vests and sometimes scarves, b, he was friends with then only openly bi guy in the school, or c, he has a Harry Shum Jr. photo taped to his wall. Though hopefully nobody could tell that just from looking at him. It could be worse, at least it wasn’t a  _ shirtless  _ Harry Shum Jr. photo. Noah had that one saved to his phone so nobody could see it but him.

Jesus christ, why did his mind wander back to the subject of his sexuality every minute? He was like, 100% straight. Maybe asexual. He could appreciate the male form, that was all. 

Luckily, the bell rang, freeing Noah from his identity crisis. Since Cody had first period PE and Noah had biology, they waved each other goodbye so they could rush to their lockers to grab the required books for class. Noah found himself smiling a little, which he quickly wiped off of his face just in case smiling made him gay or something. 

After class finished, as Noah made his way to grab his binder and pencil case, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. Hoping it might be his new friend Cody- dammit, why did he hope that- he turned around. 

Sadly, it wasn’t Cody, and he was face-to-face with the head of the homecoming committee who he’d been sort of trying to ignore outside of the planning meetings.

“Noah!” She said to him. “Have you and Cody finalized the playlist yet?”

“Yeah, because we’d totally have been able to do that in the two days since we started.” Noah put a hand on his hip. Oh shit maybe he shouldn’t do that, that was probably one of the reasons people thought he was gay. He quickly removed his hand from his hip and adjusted his standing position.

“Noah, why are you standing like that?” She asked and raised an eyebrow.

“Standing like what?” Noah said. Hopefully standing like a heterosexual would be expected to stand?

Courtney just started motioning her hands around, waving them and pointing at random parts of his body. “... _ that. _ ” 

“Uh.” Was all Noah could say as he smirked, somewhat amused. 

“Are you gay?” Courtney asked straight up. Wow. Straight to the point, huh. Noah had no idea what to say- he had no idea what the answer even was.

“What?” 

“Do you like Cody?”

“ _ What? _ ” Noah exclaimed, his face beginning to heat up a bit. 

“If you help me with something, I’ll return the favor and help set you up with Cody. He’s bi, I found out when I did a deepsearch on him.” Courtney said as she packed up her things into her bag.

“You did a  _ deepsearch  _ on him?!” It wasn’t often Noah had an expression on his face other than a completely neutral or slightly smirky expression, but right now he was full-on gaping. He was glad most of his classmates had long since cleared out the classroom for lunch, hearing nothing since the talk about the playlist, though an entertained-looking teacher sat in the room with a hand over her mouth trying not to laugh.

“Yes, yes I did. Now are you going to help me or not?” Courtney pressed. Noah groaned. This was a situation he totally wanted to be in right now instead of eating lunch with Cody right now. 

“You’re not going to let me say no, are you?” Noah rolled his eyes.

“No, no I’m not.” Courtney replied. “So, you in?” Courtney smiled- not a happy smile, though. A smile that made Noah feel like he was going to be the target of a murder in the next sixty days unless he said yes.

“Fine.” He answered, before grabbing his bag and walking away briskly so that Courtney couldn’t follow him.

“Hey, Noah, was something holding you up?” Cody smiled. The poor guy had been waiting outside the classroom, holding his lunch tray. Noah’s first thought was him wondering worriedly if Cody had heard him or not, but he sighed, internally, that is, when Cody didn’t look at him any differently.

“Just Courtney. She wanted to know if we’d finalized the playlist yet. As if that’s even possible.” Noah chuckled, which caused Cody to let out a slightly high-pitched laugh as well. 

“Uhh, well, I did revise it a bit. No more songs with explicit language. Or references to drugs. Or references to death. Or homosexuality.” Cody smiled. “What was with that last one, anyway?”

“People will assume you’re gay if you put gay songs on the playlist.” Noah mumbled. This was a lie, he was honestly more worried people would assume  _ he  _ was gay. Okay, damn, that made him sound like a selfish annoying asshat. But he sort of was, he supposed. 

“Oh. Yeah,” Cody laughed. “Wouldn’t want them thinking I only swinged one way or something.” 

Noah pretended to be surprised at what Cody said, though Courtney had told him just a few minutes ago. “So you’re bi?” He asked slowly.

“Mhm. Don’t tell people willy-nilly or anything, though. I’m not fully out or anything. Only to a few people,” Cody replied, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

“You just told me, though, dumbass,” Noah smirked.

“Yeah, well, you’re my friend. And I like you. And I trust you,” Cody beamed at him, and Noah quickly felt his cheeks redden again.

“Well that’s dumb,” Was all he could manage to mumble out. “You shouldn’t trust people with a secret like that until you’re out…” 

“Are you saying you’re going to tell someone?” Cody joked, raising one of his eyebrows.

“No, of course not. Your secret’s safe with me.” Noah gave him a little nod and a tight smile, and as the bell rang to signal the end of lunch, he waved to Cody. Dang, he didn’t even eat lunch. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments mean everything to me!! By the way, would you guys mind if I added some other POVs to this (probably Gwen, once the Courtney storyline gets into full swing, maybe Cody, Duncan, or possibly even Emma [later and dw no nemma lol])? Also would it be okay if it's less patterned, the whole "Noah, Courtney, Noah, Courtney" is a bit limiting for the story's flow.


	6. Do You Wanna Ride?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Courtney plans to use Duncan's feelings as leverage to make him behave better, but is that really her true intention?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the song title is Do You Wanna Ride from Be More Chill. Vibe doesn't 100% fit, but hey, best I could do.

Sometimes it surprised Noah how much he  _ despised  _ to work with Courtney. After all, they were similar, in a way- two sides of the same coin. They were both top of the class, in fact constantly jockeying for extra credit so they could brag they technically had a higher GPA than the other. Well, it was mostly Courtney, but when she started that he couldn’t just give up and resign himself to second place class grade average forever. There were many ways they were similar, really. 

But none of that mattered, because Courtney was a loud, obnoxious, abrasive, and pushy leader type and Noah was a quiet, hiding, quippy, and sarcastic loner. Not to say it was always this way, he  _ was  _ class president in 6th grade, but who counts middle school for anything? Yeah, sure he used to have a good social life, but that was before the other students discovered the internet and decided that the way Noah dressed, looked, and acted was gay. Because of course they did. If not for that, he might very well be where Courtney was right now. But he wasn’t, because Courtney had straight hair, straight a’s, straight forward. A straight girl. So yeah, Noah loathed working with her. She was not only annoying, but a picture-perfect example of what he  _ could  _ have been.

And now Noah had been dragged into her love life, as if it couldn’t get any worse.

“Okay, so, Noah. You’re the smartest person in the school, other than me, and probably the most trustworthy, so I’m asking you for help with a plan.” She said. Noah nodded unenthusiastically. “The other day,” Courtney continued “I was spying on Duncan and Gwen,” 

Noah raised an eyebrow. “Spying?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter.” Courtney said. “What matters is Duncan expressed- expressed- disgusting feelings about me.” She huffed. Noah rolled his eyes.

“What did he do, tell Gwen he thought you were hot?” he smirked. 

“Something along those lines. Anyway, I feel like- there has to be a way I can play this. Some way I can leverage this to make him actually pay attention and be productive during meetings.” She said.

“So, you want to use his feelings to manipulate him into doing what you want?” Noah asked. “That’s cold.”

“I- I wouldn’t put it that way! But maybe if I got to know him better and stuff he’d be less- I dunno- difficult!” Courtney was desperately trying to justify her actions. Great. 

“And what do you want  _ me  _ to do about it?”

“Well, you’re the only person in the homecoming committee I can trust!” She exclaimed. “I mean, Izzy’s batshit insane, Owen’s too stupid, Heather’s a backstabbing snake, Lindsay doesn’t listen to what I say, Gwen is- well- she’s Gwen, and Cody would get way too worked up about it!” She was waving her arms around dramatically. Noah began to wonder if this was more than her just wanting to leverage Duncan’s feelings for her own benefit.

“So, what do you propose?” Noah said absentmindedly.

“Okay, so here’s the plan. You  _ trip him _ .” 

“Brilliant. Why does me getting beaten up help you get him wrapped around your finger?” 

“You trip him. And I help him up.” She said.

“Very original.” Noah said. You’d think someone so smart would be a lot better at coming up with plans like this. 

“No, but it gets better. You trip him and he falls into the garbage can! And so to ‘apologize’, I offer to buy him a new one and treat him to frozen yogurt! Isn’t it a great plan?” Courtney seemed excited. Jeez, heterosexuals really did try to turn  _ everything  _ into a date. Except Noah. Because he was also a heterosexual. 

“Fine. Sure. But if I get beat up, you better pay for my visit to the doctors,” He said. 

“Good!” Courtney exclaimed, “And if it works out, maybe we can go on a double date with you and Cody!” She elbowed him in the arm.

“Shut up.” Noah elbowed her back, much harder. 

“Ow. I was joking, okay?” She let out an obviously forced laugh. She was never good at jokes, though, so Noah supposed it might have actually been intended to be one.

“Whatever.”

\------

Courtney didn’t think her plan was brilliant, sure. In fact, it was pretty lackluster. Normally she’d have a long, detailed plan for everything! But not for this- as soon as she started thinking about it, her face got red and her head felt fuzzy, and she couldn’t actually formulate one of her normally well-thought out plans. So here she was, in a flimsy agreement with Noah. After a bit of texting to fully flesh out the plans, they’d come to another negotiation, seeing as it was needed since Noah didn’t want to be set up with Cody. If her plan worked, and Courtney could successfully get closer to the delinquent, she’d ask him to stop picking on Noah. Which hopefully, he’d agree to.

Courtney was hiding around the corner from the dumpster, holding her phone anxiously. Noah would be positioned across from her, with his foot stuck out ready to trip the green-haired punk when he walked by on his way home from school. The plan was then he would shoot her a quick text, and she’d walk around the corner naturally, pretend to just notice him, and help him out. 

God. This was just a strategic move, to get her to a better standing, like everything else in her social life. So why the hell was her heart beating so fast it could win the olympics? She tried to calm herself down, taking a shaky breath in and out, but to little avail. Her nerves never got the best of her. That just wasn’t her way.

She heard a shout from around the corner and the sound of something heavy falling into the dumpster, followed by the sound of someone turning the corner quickly. Shortly after, she received a text from Noah. Great, time to go.

She casually rounded the corner to see a disgruntled Duncan in the dumpster. He had a banana peel on his head and was squirming around, trying to free himself from the mountain of trash. When he saw her, he scowled.

“Oh great, of course the person coming by had to be  _ you. _ ” He said, shooting her a glare.

“Need any help, Dump-can?” She asked. Hahaaha, she was so hilarious. She could almost see Noah facepalming in her head.

“Very funny, princess.” Duncan said. “But yeah. As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t exactly want to be stuck in here.”

Courtney offered him her hand, somewhat carefully- she didn’t want it to get dirty, considering she was reaching rather close to the dumpster. In fact, she was so disgusted by the garbage that she almost didn’t notice her heart rate rising again- almost.

He took her hand and gave her a big, cocky smile as she pulled him out of the disgusting trash. He brushed a candy wrapper off his pants and looked down at his shirt- a black tee with a skull print on it. Or at least, it used to look like a skull, but now it had a huge, greenish stain on it instead.

“Great. That was my favorite shirt,” He scowled. 

“I’ll buy you a new one,” Courtney smiled. “If you say thank you.”

“...thanks for helping me out of the dumpster.” Duncan begrudgingly said.

“You’re very welcome. Now, where can I find you a new shirt?” She asked.

“I thrift most of my stuff.” He laughed and scratched his head. “Don’t remember where I got this one. But I guess just get something black or green that you think will look good on me.”

“Please, nothing looks good on you.” She said with a sniff. Oh shit that came out wrong. Duncan chuckled.

“Maybe you can see that eventually.” He grinned, earning a piercing glare from the brunette girl standing in front of him.

“Not what I meant, you pervert.” She rolled her eyes. “I’ll get you your new shirt. Just because I’m being  _ nice. _ ” 

“Yeah but  _ why  _ are you being nice all of a sudden?” He crossed his arms.

“Well, as you’re probably aware, I  _ did  _ hear what you were saying the other day,” She looked at her hand nonchalantly, seeking to- and succeeding, flawlessly, to hide the mess of emotions in her head right now. “And so I figured if you  _ really  _ feel that way about me, I could at least afford to be a bit more respectful.” 

“So are we friends now?” Duncan smirked.

“No.”

“Can I take my shirt off?”

“Shut up. Let's go get frozen yogurt."

"Bossy. Love that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments make me very happy!!!


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